A strategy for controlling media noise for high areal density recording involves reducing lateral dimensions of the magnetic particles or grains. The resulting reduction in grain volume is compensated by a corresponding increase in magnetic crystalline anisotropy energy density to ensure thermal stability of the stored data bits for an extended period of time, such as for a period of approximately ten years. Unfortunately, the high magnetic crystalline anisotropy of patterned media can support high areal densities, but also can hinder conventional writing.
Embodiments disclosed herein can provide solutions to these and other problems, and offer other advantages over the prior art.